topic enquiry

Re: topic enquiry

Some of us do actually service AC units, small portables in the main but some wall mount units like the Whirlpool ones.

The problems is…

Guessed it yet?

China!

Basically, a load of cheap units from China simply aren’t worth repairing as we used to do some a few years back. The information on them was nothing short of woeful, the parts diagrams would have been better if they had used a certain chicken and some snow and the spares (if available) weren’t cheap.

On portable you also get complaints from customers that they’re not cooling, when they are, they’re just not very good. I have two AEG freestanding units and, they might maintain a temp in a room to some extent, but they won’t lower it. And yes, they are vented correctly to outside air through a sealed channel. 😉

On split units there’s a massive array of choice but generally, as they have only traditionally been used in the UK in commercial premises, most of us have likely shunned them leaving it to the commercial boys to deal with. Which is a mistake in many ways I feel, but there you have it.

However, probably like you, I have noticed that more and more people want some form of climate control in their homes and there are several solutions open to the homeowner these days with split units, cheapo freestanders and the likes of the “Lofty” which will cool (alledgedly) up to four rooms. But bar the freestanders none of the options (if you want them to be any good and serviceable in two years time) are particularly cheap, nor are they particularly cheap to service by their very nature and people tend to baulk when you tell them that it’s going to cost upwards of £100 in labour just to regass one. Not that that’s particularly expensive, it’s just that people in the UK seem to think that it’s too expensive for the supposed two days of summer that we seem to get.

It is however my opinion that properly installed air conditioning can add to the comfort factor in your home and also add to the value, or at least the attractiveness of the property to potential buyers. This is negated by the fact that to AC a typical 3 bed house with a conservatory will cost you about £3500 or thereabouts to have all the bedrooms, conservatory and living room/lounge covered to an effective degree. People in the UK seem to think that that is too much to ask and then there’s still the ongoing maintenance and service issues.

I have seen the cheap split units from B&Q that they’re pumping out this summer and, whilst I’m not what you’d call Whirlpool’s No.1 fan, their units are far superior, not that much more expensive and are likely to be serviceable for up to ten years hence. A far better buy.

If you really want to do it right, look into the likes of the Panasonic and other Japanese manufacturer’s “cartridge” units. Very efficient, very quiet and they tend not to break very often at all, but they cost.

In the end, the choice is the customer’s but telling people in the past that if they want AC in the conservatory they’d need to spend £1000-1500 to get it to work right almost required a 999 call. Needless to say very few people came back after buying a cheap freestander to tell me I was right, but enough that I know I was right. 😉

But in the end, the lower end and more affordable units aren’t worth wasting time on and the higher spec units which are don’t sell in sufficient volumes to domestic consumers, so we tend to shy away from them. But the customer is king and if they want cheap stuff then who are we to argue?

K.